158 
REVIEW OF THE MARCH NUMBER OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
REVIEW 
OF THE MARCH NUMBER OF THE 
AGRICULTURIST. 
The first thing to be noticed, is the value of this 
number. It is one of the best ever issued, and I 
is worth to any subscriber, the dollar that he I 
paid for the whole year. I now proceed to call j 
attention to some of the most valuable articles 
it contains. One of the objects of these reviews 
is, to refresh the minds of readers who may 
have passed over the matter carelessly. So 
much by way of explanation to new subscribers. 
I fancy old ones know me by this time, or rather, 
know my object. 
Naked Fallows and Naked Soils Tend to Sterility. 
— This sentence ought to be adopted as a stand- \ 
ing motto of every agricultural society in the j 
country. Every country school house should 
have it printed upon the wall, with the addition 
that shade always improves land. Even a stone 
or block of wood always makes a rich spot 
where it lies. Why is the ground where a build- 
ing has stood, or even a common rail fence, 
always rich ? It is because it has been shaded. 
One of the most ruinous systems of cultivation 
ever pursued, is that of " resting land." Does 
forest land ever rest? There is just as much 
need that it should, as to rest corn land. I be- 
lieve that the land is more exhausted by the 
burning sun after corn ripens, than by the 
crop grown upon it. Hence the importance of 
covering the ground with something that will 
make shade, after the grain is harvested. I 
differ from the writer of this valuable article, in 
one point. I very much doubt the policy of 
keeping cattle upon a grain farm to eat off the 
crops and scatter their " droppings." I have a 
very shrewd, queer sort of a neighbor, that 
raises more corn, wheat, oats, and rye, than any 
of Us, who says there are four or five great curses 
that he constantly prays to be safely delivered 
from. These are " rum, politics, hounds, hogs, 
and horned cattle." With the two latter, are 
included the curse of fencing against your 
neighbors' stock, when you do not keep any 
yourself; with the first, the curse of neighbor- 
hood quarrels, about the " unruly animals ; and 
with the second, the curse of sending such men 
to make laws, as will not do away with the odi- 
ous fence law, for fear of losing popularity 
among that class whose stock are always pirat- 
ing upon their neighbors ; with the third, the 
curse that prevents the growth of millions 
of pounds of wool, because the dogs kill the 
sheep. 
Poultry Raising. — Although my wife is one of 
the most amiable of women, she feels almost 
like coming to the scratch with the writer of this 
article; for she thinks her favorite breed of fowls, 
the Polands, are sadly calumniated. Take a 
little more care, sir, of your cackling hereafter, 
or some one will come down upon you yet, like 
a hen defending her chickens. 
The physiological fact mentioned, that the 
sight of other fowls will destroy the purity of 
the blood, although it may be new to some, is 
not to me. I think I have read in my Bible 
about the same kind of cause, producing a sim- 
ilar effect, by that greatest of all cattle breeders, 
the shrewd and calculating Jacob. It is a fact, 
not properly understood, that sight has much to 
do with giving color to many domestic animals. 
[What proof is there of its changing the breed 
of fowls ? — Eds.] 
Table for Planting Corn, Trees, <$-c. — Worth ten 
times the cost of the whole number. 
Grand Vegetable Banquet to the Potato, <SfC. — 
This is one of those peculiar scintillations of 
Punch, which not only amuse, but instruct. One 
of the kind and style of articles that ought to 
enliven the pages of every number of the Agri- 
culturist. Because it is the natural disposition 
of all mankind, to be amused rather than in- 
structed. And he that can combine the two, 
possesses a happy faculty of doing good. Man 
is a " laughing animal," and must and will laugh. 
Training Cattle and Horses. — " First, procure 
animals of a good breed, naturally intelligent." 
Yes, and next, before you undertake to learn 
them, procure another set of animals naturally 
intelligent, to train the dumb brutes. Or else 
all the training in the world may be given, and 
they will still be as big fools as their masters. 
To Cure the Scours in Cattle, and Wounds in 
Horses, are two valuable recipes that should be 
preserved for future use. Look to it, and there- 
by, perhaps, save a horse or cow. 
New Mode of Raising Wheat. — It strikes me 
that this idea of sowing oats with the wheat is 
one peculiarly well adapted to a country where 
wheat is liable to winter-kill, in consequence of 
scarcity of snow, as I think I have heard was 
the case in Iowa and Northern Illinois, to a 
greater extent than any other part of the United 
States. Besides the protection to wheat, if the 
land is rich and well prepared, the growth of 
oats will be so great as to add considerable to 
the fertility of the land. I would recommend 
an early sowing, to give the oats a chance to 
get a good growth before frost. The plan will 
not do at the south, where the winter is not 
hard enough to kill the oats. 
Cozvs not Giving Down Their Milk. — Easily 
enough explained. They are not half so big 
fools as you imagine. And they have perfect 
control over the flow, not the secretion of milk, 
and may be educated to almost any process of 
milking. In some parts of the west, (I have 
seen it in Ohio,) cows are never milked except 
by a female, with one hand, while the calf is 
almost always sucking. Do you think you 
could sit down, Yankee fashion, and milk such 
a cow with both hands, into the pail ] I should 
like to see you try it. There are two reasons 
why cows hold up their milk. One is a nervous 
affection which requires a few minutes of gen- 
tle handling of the teats, to enable them to over- 
come it. But in nine times out of ten, it is the 
effect of bad training. Cows which are properly 
milked, will give more milk than those that are 
milked by dribblers. The quality and quantity 
of milk of cows, is in a considerable degi'ee 
withifl the control of man. Proper food and 
good milkers will improve both. Train up a 
heifer in the way she should milk, and when she 
is old, she will not depart from it. If any of 
your physiological correspondents can give 
